


Another Level

by Riona



Category: Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 04:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8651521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riona/pseuds/Riona
Summary: Crowe arrives to escort the princess to her wedding, and finds herself unprepared.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I really, really wanted to see Crowe and Luna meet, so this is just a short piece to throw them together and see how they interact. If anything in this contradicts the game, I'm sorry! I'm trying to avoid learning too much about the game before it's released (we're so close!), so I'm just working from the film here.

Crowe is escorted by four grim-looking guards to meet Princess Lunafreya. She entertains herself by trying to work out how she’d take them all out, if she had to. The ones on the inside, the ones closest to her, she’d probably be able to knock the legs out from under both of them before they realised what was happening. But then she’d have the other two to deal with, and...

She loses her train of thought when the princess comes down the stairs to greet her. Maybe it’s stupid, but her first thought is, _Wow, she really looks like a princess._

She hadn’t known how to curtsey before getting this assignment. She’d had to ask Libertus to help her out. She’d managed to pick it up quickly enough, but watching Libertus demonstrate had entertained her so much that she’d asked Nyx for help as well, just to see him curtsey too.

Her attempt now feels graceless and awkward. Libertus would probably have done a better job. “Your Highness. King Regis sent me to escort you to your wedding.”

“And I am grateful to both of you,” the princess says. “Please, call me Luna.”

Crowe remembers the hairpin. She delves into her pocket, and...

...into her other pocket, and...

Fuck, did she leave the hairpin in the van? She was specifically told to keep it on her at all times, until she was able to hand it over to the princess. And she’s lost it. And now she’s sticking her hands into all her clothes and making a ridiculous first impression on royalty. Fuck!

The princess – Luna? That’s going to take some getting used to – is starting to look concerned. “Are you well?”

“Fine,” Crowe says. “I just – I’m really sorry, I brought something for you, but I must have dropped it along the way.”

“Please don’t worry,” Luna says. “I wasn’t expecting anything. I hope it wasn’t too great an expense.”

“Wasn’t my money,” Crowe says, pulling off her jacket to root through the inside pockets. “It was from my commander. Or I guess the king might’ve given it to him to pass along. Either way, I’m in trouble with one of them.”

Luna laughs. “I can tell them it was my own carelessness. What was it?”

Crowe looks sharply at her. “A hairpin. You don’t have to do that.”

“What are they going to do to me?” Luna asks. “If the consequences would be worse for you, it only makes sense.”

“I’ve only just met you. I can’t be in debt to you.”

“Consider it a payment for the escort,” Luna says. “You haven’t told me your name.”

Crowe feels herself flush. Did she really completely forget to introduce herself? “Crowe Altius. Of the Kingsglaive.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Crowe.” Luna holds out her hand.

Crowe doesn’t know whether she’s expected to shake it or kiss it. She holds out her own hand, cautiously, and is relieved when Luna takes the initiative and goes in for a shake.

-

Crowe feels like she’s fucking up constantly just by being herself. She’s not polished or refined or graceful; she doesn’t know a thing about courtly manners, or whatever it is they’re called. She showed up to escort this noble lady to her wedding on a fucking motorbike. Everything she says or does feels clumsy and ugly next to the princess.

“So what’s the prince like?” Crowe asks, as they roar down the road. It’s pretty weird to have Princess Lunafreya on her bike, pressed against her back. She’s very aware that at any moment she could make a bad turn and kill a beloved public figure.

“Prince Noctis?” Luna asks. “You would know better than I, I imagine.”

“I’m just one of the grunts. We don’t do that much direct dealing with the royal family.” Crowe glances back at her, over her shoulder. “And I’m not the one marrying him.”

“Prince Noctis and I have not seen each other in twelve years,” Luna says. “We have exchanged letters, but I would not say I know what he is like. I knew the boy he was.”

“Huh. Okay.”

For a while there’s no sound but the blaze of the engine. Crowe stares at the horizon and thinks about being told she has to marry some near-stranger.

“Doesn’t that suck?” she asks.

“Excuse me?” Luna asks, amusement in her voice.

“Sorry. Just... you don’t even know this guy, and now you’re going to marry him? Do you want me to turn this bike around?”

“I’ll come to know him soon enough. And I would be no freer in Tenebrae.”

There’s a pause.

“I should not have said that,” Luna says.

Crowe shrugs. “Say what you like. I’m not reporting it to anyone.” She sneaks another glance at Luna. “So what if we turn around but don’t go to Tenebrae?”

Luna smiles; Crowe just manages to catch it before she has to focus on the road again. “You’re proposing a kidnapping?”

“Only if you want to be kidnapped. You’d have to disguise yourself, but I’m not gonna make you marry anyone.”

“If there’s a chance for peace, I will do my part to achieve it,” Luna says. “And I can’t take you away from your life.”

For a moment, Crowe had almost forgotten she had a life of her own. She guesses she can’t really abandon her brothers in the Kingsglaive. Maybe Luna could join up.

Yeah. Kidnap the princess and sneak her into King Regis’s special forces without him noticing. That’s definitely going to work.

They’ve lapsed back into silence, but Crowe is too caught up in her thoughts to notice until Luna breaks it. “Will you be at the wedding?”

“Outside the hall,” Crowe says. “As a guard, not as a guest.”

“I’d like you to be a guest, if the king can spare you.”

It’s just a courtesy, Crowe reminds herself. Luna’s a princess, she’s busy, she can’t take a personal interest in every soldier who does something for her. They aren’t going to be friends. Once the wedding is over, they’ll only see each other when Crowe’s doing guard duty.

Crowe will wonder whether Prince Noctis turned out to be what Luna was hoping for, maybe. She’ll wonder whether Luna still feels trapped. But there won’t be any point in asking. Luna’s slipped up once already; she won’t let her diplomatic front falter again.

“Crowe?” Luna asks. “I won’t press the issue, if you’d rather not attend.”

Crowe comes to a halt at a traffic signal, although there’s no one else in sight; her superiors aren’t going to be impressed if they hear she was riding recklessly with the princess as a passenger. She closes her eyes for a moment, feels the breeze in her hair, feels Luna’s grip on her waist.

There are many miles still to go. She wonders if they’ll be enough.

“I’d be honoured,” she says.


End file.
